<p> Until a few months back, Amiesh Saheba was in the ICC’s International Panel of umpires. Sudhir Asnani was one of the two on-field umpires during the last international game in India, the final ODI against the West Indies in Chennai last month.<br /><br /></p>.<p>These men are considered among the more competent umpires in the country, and therefore entrusted with the responsibility of officiating in ‘bigger’ matches on the domestic circuit. Unfortunately, both men have left a lot to be desired with their decision-making several times in the past, carrying that form into the third day of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Haryana at the Chinnaswamy stadium.<br /><br />Even accounting for the fact that umpiring is a thankless job, there can be few excuses for the decisions the duo handed out within the first 40 minutes of Wednesday’s play.<br /><br />Saheba set the ball rolling by producing a shocker to evict Amit Verma off the day’s first delivery. Harshal Patel got one to pitch outside leg, slant across the left-hander and stuck him low outside off. The appeal was spontaneous as most appeals tend to be these days. <br /><br />Saheba took his time and, after having weighed the pros and cons that only he can explain, ruled in the bowler’s favour. It was a huge moment in the match; sadly, it was a moment that was made so not by a piece of brilliance, but by an ordinary call from an experienced umpire.<br /><br />There was worse in store for Karnataka, desperately seeking runs on the board to overturn a first-innings deficit into a challenging target. The persevering Sachin Rana got a delivery to cut back into skipper Ganesh Satish. The batsman got a clear inside edge on to the pad, but hardly had the ball made contact with the pad than Asnani’s finger shot up, almost simultaneously with Rana’s appeal. Satish, not given to overt shows of emotion, flung his head back in disappointment though to his credit, the young man trudged off with great composure.<br /><br />Asnani, it might be recalled, had come up with two howlers during the Chennai one-dayer, ruling both Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin wrongly out, the first even to the pleasant surprise of bowler Abhimanyu Mithun!<br /><br />Karnataka, of course, didn’t lose because of the umpiring. The quality of cricket they showcased didn’t merit excuses, but that doesn’t condone the poor standard of officiating that has become something of a norm these days despite fallback options of refresher courses and umpire coaches.<br /><br />Players are penalised for dissent if they react unfavourably even to wrong umpiring decisions, while the men who make those errors generally get away scot-free. The accountability that the players are subjected to must extend to match officials too. The contentious Decision Review System that is the flavour of the season is designed to eliminate ‘obvious’ mistakes, but as Mahendra Singh Dhoni repeatedly keeps pointing out, if the mistakes are so ‘obvious’, why are they committed in the first place?</p>
<p> Until a few months back, Amiesh Saheba was in the ICC’s International Panel of umpires. Sudhir Asnani was one of the two on-field umpires during the last international game in India, the final ODI against the West Indies in Chennai last month.<br /><br /></p>.<p>These men are considered among the more competent umpires in the country, and therefore entrusted with the responsibility of officiating in ‘bigger’ matches on the domestic circuit. Unfortunately, both men have left a lot to be desired with their decision-making several times in the past, carrying that form into the third day of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Haryana at the Chinnaswamy stadium.<br /><br />Even accounting for the fact that umpiring is a thankless job, there can be few excuses for the decisions the duo handed out within the first 40 minutes of Wednesday’s play.<br /><br />Saheba set the ball rolling by producing a shocker to evict Amit Verma off the day’s first delivery. Harshal Patel got one to pitch outside leg, slant across the left-hander and stuck him low outside off. The appeal was spontaneous as most appeals tend to be these days. <br /><br />Saheba took his time and, after having weighed the pros and cons that only he can explain, ruled in the bowler’s favour. It was a huge moment in the match; sadly, it was a moment that was made so not by a piece of brilliance, but by an ordinary call from an experienced umpire.<br /><br />There was worse in store for Karnataka, desperately seeking runs on the board to overturn a first-innings deficit into a challenging target. The persevering Sachin Rana got a delivery to cut back into skipper Ganesh Satish. The batsman got a clear inside edge on to the pad, but hardly had the ball made contact with the pad than Asnani’s finger shot up, almost simultaneously with Rana’s appeal. Satish, not given to overt shows of emotion, flung his head back in disappointment though to his credit, the young man trudged off with great composure.<br /><br />Asnani, it might be recalled, had come up with two howlers during the Chennai one-dayer, ruling both Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin wrongly out, the first even to the pleasant surprise of bowler Abhimanyu Mithun!<br /><br />Karnataka, of course, didn’t lose because of the umpiring. The quality of cricket they showcased didn’t merit excuses, but that doesn’t condone the poor standard of officiating that has become something of a norm these days despite fallback options of refresher courses and umpire coaches.<br /><br />Players are penalised for dissent if they react unfavourably even to wrong umpiring decisions, while the men who make those errors generally get away scot-free. The accountability that the players are subjected to must extend to match officials too. The contentious Decision Review System that is the flavour of the season is designed to eliminate ‘obvious’ mistakes, but as Mahendra Singh Dhoni repeatedly keeps pointing out, if the mistakes are so ‘obvious’, why are they committed in the first place?</p>
